Led of the Spirit to be tempted of the devil

Having thus in grace taken up His position as man on earth, He
commences (Matt. 4) His earthly career, being led of the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. The righteous and
holy man, the Son of God, enjoying the privileges proper to such a
one, He must undergo the trial of those devices through which the
first Adam fell. It is His spiritual condition which is tested. It
is not now an innocent man in the enjoyment of all God's natural
blessings, who is put to the proof in the midst of those blessings
which should have made him remember God. Christ, nigh to God as His
beloved Son, but in the midst of trial, having the knowledge of
good and evil, and as to outward circumstances come down into the
midst of man's fallen state, must have His faithfulness to this
position fully tried with respect to His perfect obedience. To
maintain this position, He must have no other will than that of His
Father, and fulfil it or suffer it, whatever might be the
consequences to Himself. He must fulfil it in the midst of all the
difficulties, the privations, the isolation, the desert, where
Satan's power was, which might tempt Him to follow an easier path
than that which should be only for the glory of His Father. He must
renounce all the rights that belonged to His own Person, save as He
should receive them from God, yielding them up to Him with a
perfect trust. The enemy did his utmost to induce Him to make use
of His privileges, "if thou be the Son of God," for His own relief,
apart from the command of God, and in avoidance of the sufferings
which might accompany the performance of His will. But it was to
lead Him to do His own will, not God's.

With the enemy in the wilderness

Jesus, enjoying in His own Person and relationship with God the
full favour of God as Son of God, the light of His countenance,
goes into the wilderness for forty days to be in conflict with the
enemy. He did not go away from man, and from all intercourse with
man and the things of man, in order (like Moses and Elias) to be
with God. Being already fully with God, He is separate from men by
the power of the Holy Ghost to be alone in His conflict with the
enemy. In the case of Moses, it was man out of his natural
condition to be with God. In the case of Jesus, it is so to be
with the enemy: to be with God was His natural position.

Simple and absolute obedience: living by God's words

The enemy tempts Him first by proposing to Him to satisfy His
bodily need, and, instead of waiting on God, to employ according to
His own will and on His own behalf the power with which He was
endowed. But, if Israel was fed in the wilderness with manna from
God, the Son of God, however great His power, would act in
accordance with what Israel should have learnt by that means,
namely, that "man doth not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The Man, the obedient
Jew, the Son of God, waited for this word, and would do nothing
without it. He was not come to do His own will, but the will of Him
who sent Him. This is the principle that characterises the Spirit
of Christ in the Psalms. No deliverance is accepted but the
intervention of Jehovah at His own good time. It is perfect
patience, in order to be perfect and complete in all the will of
God. There could be no sinful lust in Christ; but to be hungry was
no sin, yet it was a human need, and what harm in eating when
hungry? There was no will of God to do it, and that will by the
word He came to do. Satan's suggestion was, "if thou be the Son of
God, command"; but He had taken the place of a servant, and this
was not commanding: he sought to get the Lord out of the place of
perfect service and obedience, out of the place of a servant.

The written word and the character of Christ's obedience

And note here the place the written word has, and the character
of Christ's obedience. This character is not simply that the will
of God is a rule; it is the one motive for action. We have a will
arrested often by the word. Not so Christ. His Father's will was
His motive; He acted not merely according to, but because it was,
God's will. We delight to see a child who would run off to
something it delights in, stop and cheerfully do its parents' will
when called to do it. But Christ never obeyed thus, never sought a
will of His own, but was stopped by His Father's. And we are
sanctified to the obedience of Christ. Note further that the
written word is that by which He lives and by which He
overcomes. All depended here on Christ's victory, as all did on
Adam's fall. But for Christ, one text, rightly used of course,
suffices. He seeks no other: that is obedience. It suffices for
Satan; he has no reply. His wiles are thus defeated. The first
principle of conquest is simple and absolute obedience, living by
words out of God's mouth. The next is perfect confidence in the
path of obedience.

Perfect confidence in the path of obedience

In the second place then, the enemy sets Him on a pinnacle of
the temple, to induce Him to apply to Himself the promises made to
the Messiah, without abiding in the ways of God. The faithful man
may assuredly reckon on the help of God while walking in His
ways. The enemy would have the Son of man put God to the test
(instead of reckoning on Him while walking in His ways) to see
whether He might be trusted in. This would have been a want of
confidence in God, not obedience; or pride, presuming on its
privileges, instead of counting on God in obedience [1]. Taking His
place with Israel in the condition they were in when without a king
in the land, and, quoting the directions given to them in that book
to guide them in the godly path there taught, He uses for His
guidance that part of the word which contains the divine injunction
on this subject, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God"; a passage
often quoted as if it forbade excess in trusting God; whereas it
means not to distrust, and try if He is faithful. They tempted God,
saying, Is God indeed among us? And this Satan would have had the
Lord do.

[1] We need confidence to have courage to obey; but true
confidence is found in the path of obedience. Satan could use the
word in guile, but not turn Christ the Lord from it. He still uses
it as the adequate divine weapon, and Satan still has no reply. To
have forbidden obedience would have been to show himself Satan. As
regards the place in which the Lord was dispensationally, we may
remark the Lord always quotes from Deuteronomy.

The earthly inheritance offered the Son of man by Satan in open hostility to God

The enemy, failing to deceive that obedient heart, even by
hiding himself under the use of the word of God, shows himself in
his true character, tempting the Lord, thirdly, to spare Himself
all the sufferings that awaited Him, by showing Him the inheritance
of the Son of man on earth, that which would be His when He had
reached it through all those paths, toilsome yet necessary to the
Father's glory, which the Father had marked out for Him. All should
now be His, if He would acknowledge Satan by worshipping him, the
god of this world. This in fact was what the kings of the earth had
done for only a part of these things; how often done for some
trifling vanity! but He should have the whole. But if Jesus was to
inherit earthly glory (as well as all other) the object of His
heart was God Himself, His Father, to glorify Him. Whatever might
be the value of the gift, it was as the gift of the Giver that His
heart prized it. Moreover He was in the position of tested man and
a faithful Israelite; and whatever might be the trial of patience
into which the sin of the people had brought Him, be the trial ever
so great, He would serve none but His God alone.

The believer's attitude towards Satan

But if the devil carries temptation, sin, to the utmost, and
shows himself to be the adversary (Satan), the believer has the
right to cast him out. If he comes as a tempter, the believer
should answer him by the faithfulness of the word, which is man's
perfect guide, according to the will of God. He does not need to
see through everything. The word is the word of Him who does, and
in following that, we walk according to a wisdom which knows
everything, and in a path formed by that wisdom, and which hence
involves absolute trust in God. The two first temptations were the
wiles of the devil, the third, open hostility to God. If he comes
as the open adversary of God, the believer has a right to have
nothing to do with him. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from
you." He knows he has met Christ, not flesh. May believers resist
if Satan would tempt them by the world, remembering it is Satan's
domain in fallen man!

The believer's safeguard

The believer's safeguard, morally (that is, as to the state of
his heart) is a single eye. If I seek only the glory of God, that
which presents no other motive than my own aggrandisement, or my
own gratification, whether of body or mind, will have no hold upon
me; and will show itself in the light of the word, which guides the
single eye, as contrary to the mind of God. This is not the
haughtiness that rejects temptation on the ground of being good; it
is obedience, humbly giving God His place, and consequently His
word also. "By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths
of the destroyer," from him that did his own will and made it his
guide. If the heart seeks God alone, the most subtle snare is
discovered, for the enemy never tempts us to seek God alone. But
this supposes a pure heart, and that there is no self-seeking. This
was displayed in Jesus. Our safeguard against temptation is the
word, used by the discernment of a perfectly pure heart, which
lives in the presence of God, and learns the mind of God in His
word [1], and therefore knows its application to the circumstances
presented. It is the word that preserves the soul from the wiles of
the enemy.

[1] There must be no other motive for action than the will of
God, which, for man, is always to be found in the word; because, in
that case, when Satan tempts us to act, as he always does, by some
other motive, this motive is seen to be opposed to the word which
is in the heart, and to the motive which governs the heart, and is
therefore judged as being opposed to it. It is written, "Thy word
have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee." This
is the reason why it is so often important, when we are in doubt,
to ask ourselves by what motive we are influenced. Observe also
that, consequently, it is in the spirit of simple and humble
obedience that power lies; for where it exists, Satan can do
nothing. God is there, and accordingly the enemy is conquered.

Three temptations and characters of the Lord

It appears to me that these three temptations are addressed to
the Lord in the three characters, of man, of Messiah, and of Son of
man. He had no sinful desires like fallen man, but He was an
hungered. The tempter would persuade Him to satisfy this need
without God. The promises in the Psalms belonged to Him as being
made to the Messiah. And all the kingdoms of the world were His as
the Son of man. He always replies as a faithful Israelite,
personally responsible to God, making use of the Book of
Deuteronomy, which treats of this subject (namely, the obedience of
Israel, in connection with the possession of the land, and the
privileges that belonged to the people in connection with this
obedience; and this, apart from the organisation which constituted
them a corporate body before God) [1].

[1] A careful examination of the Pentateuch will show that,
though needed historical facts are stated, yet the contents of
Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers are essentially typical. The
tabernacle was made according to the pattern shown in the mount the
pattern of heavenly things; and not only the ceremonial ordinances,
but the historical facts, as the apostle distinctly states,
happened unto them for types, and are written for our
instruction. Deuteronomy gives directions for their conduct in the
land; but the three books named, even where there are historical
facts, are typical in their object. I do not know if one sacrifice
was offered after they were instituted, unless perhaps the official
ones (see Acts 7: 42). Satan departs from Him, and the angels come
to exercise their ministry towards the Messiah, the Son of man
victorious through obedience. What Satan would have Him try God
about, He has fully. They are ministering spirits for us also.

Satan met and bound for man

But how profoundly interesting is it to see the blessed Lord
come down, the Son of God from heaven, and take -- the Word made
flesh -- His place among the poor godly ones on the earth, and, as
having taken that place, owned of the Father as His Son, heaven
being opened and opened to Him as man, and the Holy Ghost coming
down and abiding on Him as man though without measure, and so
forming the model of our place, though we were not yet in it; the
whole Trinity, as I have said, being first fully revealed when He
is thus associated with man; and then, we being slaves to Satan,
going in this character and relationship to meet also Satan for us,
to bind the strong man, and give man through Him this place also:
only for us redemption was needed to bring us where He is.

The Lord's ministry outside Jerusalem fulfilling prophecy

John being cast into prison, the Lord departs into Galilee. This
movement, which determined the scene of His ministry outside
Jerusalem and Judea, had great significance with respect to the
Jews. The people (so far as centred in Jerusalem, and boasting in
the possession of the promises, the sacrifices, and the temple, and
in being the royal tribe) lost the presence of the Messiah, the Son
of David. He went away for the manifestation of His Person, for the
testimony of God's intervention in Israel, to the poor and despised
of the flock; for the remnant and poor of the flock are already in
Matthew 3 and Matthew 4 clearly distinguished from the heads of the
people. He thus really became the true stock, instead of being a
branch of that which had been planted elsewhere; although this
effect was not yet fully manifested. The moment corresponds with
John 4. We may remark here, that, in John's Gospel, the Jews are
always distinguished from the multitude, called the people in the
Gospels. The language, or rather the pronunciation, was entirely
different. They did not speak Chaldee in Galilee. At the same time
this manifestation of the Son of David in Galilee was the
fulfilment of a prophecy in Isaiah. The force of that prophecy is
this: although the Roman captivity was far more terrible than the
invasion of the Assyrians when they came up against the land of
Israel, there was nevertheless this circumstance which altered
everything, namely, the presence of the Messiah, the true Light, in
the land.

The Lord's history here passed over till the death of John the Baptist

We observe that the Spirit of God here passes over the whole
history of Jesus until the commencement of His ministry after the
death of John the Baptist. He gives Jesus His proper position in
the midst of Israel -- Emmanuel, the Son of David, the Beloved of
God, acknowledged as His Son, the faithful One in Israel, though
exposed to all Satan's temptations; and then at once, afterwards,
His prophetic position announced by Isaiah, and the kingdom
proclaimed as at hand [1].

[1] And we may remark here, that He leaves the Jews and
Jerusalem, as already remarked, and His natural place, so to speak,
what gave Him His name, Nazareth, and takes His prophetic
place. The casting of John into prison was significant of His own
rejection. John was His forerunner in it, as in his mission, of the
Lord. See Matthew 17: 12. The testimony of Jesus is the same as
that of John the Baptist. He then gathers around Him those who
were definitively to follow Him in His ministry and His
temptations; and, at His call, to link their portion and their lot
with His, forsaking all beside. The strong man was bound, so that
Jesus could spoil his goods, and proclaim the kingdom with proofs
of that power which were able to establish it.

The proclamation of the kingdom in power : its character, nature and subjects

Two things are then brought forward in the Gospel
narrative. First, the power which accompanies the proclamation of
the kingdom. In two or three verses [1], without other detail, this
fact is announced. The proclamation of the kingdom is attended
with acts of power that excite the attention of the whole country,
the whole extent of the ancient territory of Israel. Jesus appears
before them invested with this power. Secondly (Matt. 5-7) the
character of the kingdom is announced in the sermon on the Mount,
as well as that of the persons who should have part in it (the
Father's name withal being revealed). That is, the Lord had
announced the coming kingdom, and with the present power of
goodness, having overcome the adversary; and then shows what were
the true characters according to which it would be set up, and who
could enter, and how. Redemption is not spoken of in it; but the
character and nature of the kingdom, and who could enter. This
clearly shows the moral position which this sermon holds in the
Lord's teaching.

[1] It is striking that the whole ministry of the Lord is
recounted in one verse (23). All the subsequent statements are
facts, having a special moral import, showing what was passing
amongst the people in grace onward to His rejection, not a proper
consecutive history. It stamps the character of Matthew very
clearly.

The Lord's position in Israel; the principles of His kingdom

It is evident that, in all this part of the Gospel, it is the
Lord's position which is the subject of the teaching of the Spirit,
and not the details of His life. Details come after, in order fully
to exhibit what He was in the midst of Israel, His relations with
that people, and His path in the power of the Spirit which led to
the rupture between the Son of David and the people who ought to
have received Him. The attention of the whole country being thus
engaged by His mighty acts, the Lord sets before His disciples --
but in the hearing of the people -- the principles of His
kingdom.